Effective communication is a lot more than simply choosing the right words. Being persuasive, forming the right communication strategies and speaking effectively are just a few of the components necessary for people to communicate effectively.
One important component that is often overlooked is mental energy reserves. Now, I understand very well that the concept of mental energy has at least until recently been considered a metaphor. When your "mental energy" was down, traditionally you just “give a little bit more effort”, “man up” or just focus and you’d be fine. How you "felt" inside was just your perception... It wasn’t real… an actual thing… Well, is turns out that it is indeed a measurable "thing" and knowing this spins the old paradigm on it's head... Now stick with me because we're not getting metaphysical here, we’re going to get to the rock solid science soon enough.
Effectively communicating can require intense cognitive effort which is known as “top-down executive control” in the brain. Basically your prefrontal cortex is working overtime to manage the unrelenting force of the unconscious drives of the brain. To do this takes quite a bit of volitional control and can be extremely taxing on the brain. In other words, if you're in trouble while trying to “sell the lie”, “get girl” or “close the sale” there is usually a lot of executive control going on in your head. If your mental “energy source” is down, how do you think you're going to perform? I know, I know… you're too mentally strong to fall under the pressure… well I'm going to show you why you're not.
(By the way, I don't condone lying, it is metaphorical)
Aside from the “juicy” (look for the pun later in the blog) behavior above, many other common behaviors have been found to rely on and deplete this elusive “energy source” as well, including managing your impression, suppressing stereotypes and prejudice, coping with negative thoughts and fears, controlling your spending, restraining aggression, etc…
The notion had been toyed around with quite a bit in the academic world for some time that self-control and this type of top-down processing rely on a particular and limited energy reserve or strength. Now, if this was true and there was indeed a limited energy reserve it would hold that once someone engaged in a rigorous cognitive process that requires top-down processing or strong self-control, that those energy reserves would become depleted as a result, correct? This would make subsequent performance much less effective and much more difficult volitionally.
With this being a pretty interesting topic, you know that academia couldn't keep their hands off of it. So in an effort to find this elusive "energy reserve" once and for all, Florida State and Texas A&M engaged in a number of studies to prove this theory.
A number of experiments were executed placing subjects in routines that tested their volitional power and self-control. From a biological standpoint, based on all the research to date, glucose seemed to be the likely candidate for this energy reserve. There are a number of reasons but we won’t get into that here…
So what do you think the results were? The studies empirically determined that effort-ful suppression of urges through execution of volition directly and significantly depleted glucose levels in the brain. This in return had a significant and direct impact on the individual’s subsequent ability to perform and effectively communicate.
In one study in particular, subjects were paired into groups with subjects of another race to interact in discussions on areas such as affirmative action and criminal profiling to create a mentally taxing situation for individuals who scored low on the IMS (The Internal motivation to respond without prejudice scale) which measures someone's drive to stay away from any racial stereotyping in speech or action. This might require some mental control.. no?
Well, the results were undeniable… same race pairs experience almost no glucose depletion where as mixed race pairs experienced massive glucose depletion… Now even though nearly all of the brain’s activities consume some glucose, most cognitive processes are relatively unaffected by subtle or minor fluctuations in glucose levels within the normal range. Controlled, effort-ful processes that rely on higher executive function however turned out to be HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE to normal fluctuations in glucose.
So what does this mean for the average person who's interacting with, communicating to and attempting to gain the cooperation of someone on a daily basis? Well you may not find yourself in a racially mixed group discussing affirmative action frequently, but think outside the box a little bit… When your boss is grilling you because you asked for a raise, effectively communicating to him while suppressing the desire to tell him to shut up may tax you. What about trying to get a date with the new girl, fro the last 20 minutes of her cat story you have to suppress your compulsion to tell her you don't care... How about closing the sale... Man do you just want to tell them "just sign the darn contract so we can get on with our lives". Well you see where I am going with this...
A professional communicator needs to be aware of this fact so that they can best prepare themselves for any potentially “taxing” interactions that they see coming their way. But have no fear, if you find that your sugar levels are low or your not feeling “on”, there are a number of quick fixes. Ideally you will eat some fruit if it's available, but lemonade or any other juices (theres the pun...) including a good cold Red Bull will do the trick. In fact, Red Bull or other glucose laden drinks will have a quicker effect. Fructose (fruit sugar) breaks down into glucose more slowly, but is healthier. Processed sugar is already there so it will affect you quicker.
Once you have glucose in your system, it is absorbed into the bloodstream at a rate of 30 calories per minute and after about 10 minutes can be metabolized to the brain. Now, everybody knows that you fell "better" after eating, especially sugar. What is important here is that mental energy isn't just a fluffy perception, it is real, it is measurable and can be depleted. Can you drive your car without gas by "focusing"???
So if you have a “make it or break it” sales appointment or you're coming home late and you know that your spouse will be waiting up for a sneak attack, take a quick mental check and make sure that everything feels in line. If not grab some Red Bull and start working on your communication strategy before your pending communication... You’ll be glad you did…
*Disclaimer. This article is not advocating the usage of Red Bull or any other products. The author of this article is not a medical doctor and the information should not be held as prescribed medical advice as dictated by the AMA. Usage of any products containing sugar are done at your own risk.
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